Pasar Baru traders complain over rents

Pasar Baru traders complain over rents

JAKARTA (JP): Traders operating at the Pasar Baru shopping
center have reported the center's management to the city council
for imposing unfair rents.

Three traders claiming to represent 31 colleagues operating on
the Metro pedestrian bridge in the shopping center said yesterday
that the center's management, PT Yakin Wiskon, set higher fees
for 'new' traders.

The management sealed off shops last month after traders
refused to pay higher rents which were effective from November
1995.

Nelly, a spokesperson for the traders, said that management
had imposed two different leases on traders.

Those considered to be 'new' traders were charged Rp 175
million (US$76,086) per shop for a 15 year lease: new traders
were classified as those who leased their shops 13 years ago, she
said.

Their leases expired last year. They refused to pay new leases
and their shops were sealed off.

'Old' traders were classified as those who leased their shops
when the center's bridge opened in 1990. They were charged only
Rp 125 million per shop for a 15 year lease.

"This is not fair," Nelly told commission B in charge of local
economic affairs. There is only a two year difference between the
new and old traders.

The commission, chaired by Subagyo Partodihardjo, told the
traders that it would summon the shopping center's management to
settle the matter. (yns)